Where Do Town Names Come From?

I started looking at small towns when we decided we were moving to Colorado almost six years ago. The names were amazing to me and I often wondered where did they come from? I remember telling son I would NOT move anywhere that had the name bear in it. Since then I have changed my mind and am not as terrified of bears as I used to be. I do consider them wild animals but I am not afraid of them charging up and baring fangs and eating me.

Anyway, I know where our town name came from. The town is named after a person. But, I ran across so many funny names and I wondered where in the world did these towns get their names from? Here are some examples:

Hell, Michigan                      Cool, California                                          Uncertain, Texas

Carefree, AZ                           Last Chance, Idaho                                Accident, Maryland

Normal, Illinois                     Hopeulikit, Georgia                              Happy Hollow, Ohio

Intercourse, PA                     Truth or Consequences, NM                Boring, Oregon

Rough and Ready, CA          Whynot, Mississippi

This is a great link   
http://www.accuracyproject.org/towns.html
    with way more names than I have here, but after reading them all….I think I would like to live in Happy Hollow or Heaven Heights or maybe Christmas.

I did learn that “Hell does freeze over. Hell, Michigan, that is. Dubbed Hell by 19th century farm wives whose husbands returned home drunk after turning their grain into whiskey at a local still, today’s Hell has a sense of humor. Local hangout “Screams For Ice Cream” serves up the Grave Digger banana split, has a coffin of ice cream toppings, and offers “Hell Branded Souvenirs.  Is a T-shirt not enough? You can also get married in Hell or be mayor of Hell for a day.”

This comes from another great site:

http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-advice/photos/the-10-funniest-small-town-names-in-america.html?id=4662845

Our town is based on mining and I love the museum here and learning all about the history of the people who first came here.

Eply Maneuvers and Vertigo

Since January 1 of this year, I have suffered with vertigo. I actually did the simplified Eply maneuver on myself a couple of weeks ago and it stopped the feeling that you were plunging off a cliff at 100 miles per hour. But the other type of vertigo where the room is spinning  still persisted. I used to think vertigo was just dizziness and it is not. The first night I had it, it actually looked like my bed was moving from side to side and trying to throw me off…and as it persisted, the pictures and furniture move around the room in a swirl. I can see how someone with vertigo would think they were going crazy. I have dizziness and balance issues for my normal and welcome the day when that is all I have.

The Eply Maneuver

video

Vertigo can be where the room is moving around you…nothing hold stills. It can also be what they call “sudden drop” and that is the buckboard ride from hell I have talked about. For anyone new, just imagine you are standing on a platform 100 feet up in the air and someone opens a trap door under you and you are falling 100 miles an hour straight down head first. It is horrific.

They sent son and I home yesterday with instructions that I was not to turn my head or tip my head down and to sleep at a 45 degree angle on my back for the next three days. Well, it is not too hard in a hospital bed to elevate yourself but takes a little more to keep you from turning to the side especially when you are a side sleeper.  Son had me wedged in with pillows on both sides of me and on each side of my head to keep it from moving. Of course, it took an act of congress every time the bathroom siren called me. And then we had to reposition all over again.

I woke up this morning and was doing my weeble wobble four-legged walk to the bathroom and looked into the mirror and scared myself half to death. I looked like someone had given me a Mohawk hairdo from the pillows on either side of my head. After calming myself down and assuring myself that this was indeed me in that mirror, I headed back into the bedroom. It took me a few attempts as I kept looking back into that mirror direction to make sure that the person in there was not coming after me.

My room looks like who shot Liz which means it looks like train wreck..all messed up. Son took my bed last nite and twisted it so that I could still see my second monitor and my tv above it as that is what occupies me on those non sleep times during the night. My computer setup by the bed..the whole table section is all messed up as everything was moved around for my change in position. Bad news was, I kept trying to get out of bed on the right side and would find myself with my legs on  my DVR box and that would jar me awake so that I remembered I had to get up on the other side. Son took these pics on one of the middle of the night bathroom occasions. See how he has my bed slammed against my side table with my computer monitor.  Think he has enough pillows in there for me?

So, everything is all out of wack in my room and the hot air balloon chimes hanging on my stained glass ceiling light hit son on the head every time he comes to check on me as they are normally over the bed. It was funny as I never hear him come to my door to check on me and so when he would walk to the side of the bed to make sure I was ok, the chimes let me know he was here.

The funny thing now was that my speaker that plays the tv for me so that I can use a little ear bud, is hanging on the wall at the head of my bed. Last night, it fell off the nail three times and after the third time, we both got fed up and this is what we did. Today I can laugh for it is a redneck fix for sure.  And yes, that is black electrical tape holding the speaker to the wall. Desperation breeds creative ways to do things.

So, one more night of sleeping like this and I should be home free. They said they may have to do it more than once. I hope not for while it is a simple procedure, if you have a bad neck….it flares it up. While the procedure and going to the hospital was extremely tiring and I did not get home until late in the evening, it is not as bad as some things I have had to have done. The Physical Therapist that did it is nice and he is quite the character and so he made the visit even more bearable.

All I can say is Thank God for dual monitors. I can’t see the monitor I normally work on as the head of the bed is raised up but everything has been slid over to my second monitor and that helps a lot. Son has quite a unique setup for me here all intended to make life easier.That is dual monitors on the bottom and my television on a swing arm at the top.  Sometimes I sit on the edge of the bed to type and a lot of the time I am laying on the bed and have the keyboard on a pillow on my lap. Son gets amazed at the positions I can get in to type.

And so by Monday, I tell them if the vertigo is better. They said after these three days I should know. If not, they will do it again. I feel sure the vertigo will be gone. It just has to be. What is that Macbeth quote  “Out damn spot”…….well I say  “out damn vertigo…be gone!”